Structure and Management

While the Supercomputer Facility was created with
the principal objective of supporting work centred on the supercomputers,
its mission now encompasses support and participation in all aspects of
advanced computational science in general, including visualization, massive
data storage, parallel computing and computational science and engineering
education. As a result, the structure of the Facility has changed over the
years to reflect this.

The Facility's staff include Academic Consultants,
support, systems and visualization programmers and an administrator, plus
a number of scientific and programming staff engaged on externally funded
projects.

The primary responsibility of the Academic Consultants
of ANUSF is in the applications area and in establishing an appropriate
environment for advanced computing-based research. Contacts with researchers
on campus may take a variety of forms, from short consultancies addressing
particular questions from users, to extended collaborations in which an
Academic Consultant may spend several months as part of a research team
implementing an application on the supercomputer. There is also a Programmer
who provides general support to the Facility as well as taking on many of
the roles of the Academic Consultants.

A lecturer is appointed jointly with DCS, FEIT
to develop and deliver Computational Science and Engineering courses to
undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as to develop short courses
for industry.

The Facility employs Visualization Programmers
whose role is to support researchers in the increasingly important area
of interpreting the output of large-scale computations and data from other
sources such as remote sensors and experiments. There is a half-time post
which provides applications level support to users of the massive data storage
system.

A small systems administrator group is responsible
for the for the operational management of the supercomputers, the mass data
storage system, visualization systems, training laboratories and group workstations.

The Supercomputer Facility has major collaborative
projects in place with Fujitsu Limited, Japan. One of these projects employs
over three dedicated computational chemists within the Facility and a postdoctoral
fellow in JCSMR. The Facility also manages and participates in a joint research
and development project with Fujitsu in which mathematical algorithms and
software for parallel-vector processors are being developed. This project
employs three research fellows located in the School of Mathematical Sciences
and the Computer Science Laboratory, RSISE as well as a software engineer/librarian
and mathematicians in fractional posts in ANUSF. These projects are described
in more detail elsewhere in this report.

The Supercomputer Facility is one of the independent
arms of Information Technology Services, under the Director of Information
Technology Services and of the High Performance Computing Advisory Committee
(HPCAC).

The HPCAC is established by the Vice-Chancellor.
The Committee advises the Vice-Chancellor, via the Information Technology
Strategy Committee, on all aspects of high performance computing in the
research and advanced teaching work of the University and on the development
and promotion of computational science disciplines.

As well as advising on the HPC service provision,
the Committee also has responsibility for developing and recommending academic
initiatives in the computational sciences which fall outside of existing
academic structures, particularly those of an interdisciplinary character
involving the Academic Consultants in the Supercomputer Facility and appropriate
groups on campus.

With the advice of the HPCAC, the Head, Academic
Services is responsible for setting goals and developing policy in HPC for
the University as well as management of the Facility, its services and internal
and external collaborative programs.

The Committee's terms of reference includes the
responsibility to:
1. develop, review and advise on the strategic goals, principles, policies
and plans for the development, acquisition, implementation and ongoing support
of high performance computing services on campus, particularly those which
are centrally provided;
2. evaluate proposals and plans, and advise on the prioritisation of the
needs of staff, students and management involved in research, particularly
with respect to the development and implementation of University-wide initiatives
and the provision of high performance computing;
3. make recommendations to the IT Strategy Committee on the resources required
for the effective operation of high performance computing;
4. monitor the service provision for high performance computing;
5. provide policy and management guidance to the Supercomputer Time Allocation
Committee;
6. provide an annual report to the Vice-Chancellor on progress and achievements
in the area of high performance computing in the University;
7. facilitate initiatives in the computational sciences, particularly those
which are interdisciplinary or involve staff working in groups such as the
ANUSF;
8. oversee and promote links and joint activities in computational sciences
with industry and other Australian universities;
9. consider the positioning of the University's high performance computing
so that the University may attract a high degree of interest nationally
and internationally as a leading research institution.
In 1997 the membership of the HPCAC was:

Chair, appointed by the Vice-Chancellor

Professor J Mould, Director, MSSSO

Members nominated by the Board of the Institute
of Advanced Studies

Professor R Dewar, RSPhysSE

Professor D Evans, RSC in September

(Chair of Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee)

Dr J Gready, JCSMR (from September)

Members nominated by the Board of The Faculties

Dr M Cardew-Hall, FEIT

Dr T O'Neill, SMS

Student representative (PARSA)

David Miron, RSISE (replaced by David Smith, RSC
Nov 97)

Representative of IT Services

Dr R Erskine, Director, Information Technology
Services

Executive Officer to the Committee

Dr R Gingold Head, Academic Services,

ANU Supercomputing Facility (Ex Officio)

The HPCAC met four times in 1997.

Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee

Most of the resources offered by ANUSF are subject to allocation by the
Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee. Details of the Committee and its
activities in 1997 are presented elsewhere in this report.

Changes in 1997

Since the inception of the Facility in 1987, RSC and RSPhysSE have contributed
towards the support of the Academic Consultant salaries. As a result of
financial pressures, this support was withdrawn in 1997.